The child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, is back, babes. She’s got her best suit on, she’s got her 5:00 AM Redbull, and she’s dragged you out of bed for another chungus work week. So, let’s not keep this ancient Greek personification of sunup waiting. Here are the biggest headlines of today:
Is Australia’s Baby Bonus Payment Making a Come Back?
As of January 2021, 7NEWS outlined that the amount of upfront cash one would get for having a baby was $570.00. But in 2022, a social analyst, named Mark McCrindle, told The Daily Telegraph that he wants this amount to be higher. Much higher.
McCrindle wants this amount of money to potentially go back to the early 2000s heydays. At that time, the baby bonus was between $3000 and $5437.
But why does McCrindle want new parents to get thousands of fresh bills? Whelp, it’s because he believes that Australia is currently in a baby drought. Last year the Census outlined that 5.8% of the Australian population is comprised of people four-years-old or younger. McCrindle believes that this number isn’t high enough.
McCrindle believes a higher baby bonus would encourage more folks to have children. He stated, “Even if it went up to $10,000, it’s only a token anyway compared to the costs of raising those kids.”
It’s worth noting that whether or not Australia’s actually in a baby drought, improving the quality of life for our country’s new parents is a smart move. This is because we’re in a cost of living crisis that’s racking up the prices of everything from petrol to certain vegetables. These price spikes are making raising a munchkin even more tricky than usual.
Nevertheless, Zali Steggall, the Independent Member for Warringah, is fighting for better parenting conditions without making a baby bonus a centrepiece of policy. Instead of pushing hard for an extra $3000 up top, she’s pushing for more parental leave.
As she posted on Instagram on September 26, “Today I will introduce a motion into the House of Reps which proposes to extend paid parental leave to at least 26 shared weeks from January 1 next year.”
“While there’s been lots of talk, there’s been limited improvements to the scheme since it was introduced in 2011,” she explained.
“Cost is often raised as a concern, but Grattan Institute research indicates that by increasing the entitlement to 26 weeks, shared between parents, it would cost the Government $600 million per year and would add $900 million to GDP per year.”
Queensland Is Catching a Whack of Drivers Out
Thanks to some new tech and some bad drivers, the Queensland Government is now making a buckwild amount of money. In the last 12 months or so, Queensland, like other states, has started using cameras that can catch people texting while driving or not wearing a seatbelt. As per The Courier Mail, this program gave the state an extra $274.5 million in the last financial year.
Transport Minister, Mark Bailey, categorised the number of individuals breaking these road rules as “very disappointing.”
He also noted, “All revenue generated from the camera detected offence program is reinvested back into road safety by law and has been for more than 20 years.”
Related: Queensland Wants Us to Buy Electric Vehicles
Related: Why Queensland’s $776 Million Wind Farm Is Brilliance
Dogs VS Animal Plushies: Who Will Win the Battle of the Year?
A recent study in the journal Plos One has pitted real-life doggos against animal plushies. Why? It’s because multiple researchers wanted to know which of these two created the most prefrontal brain activity in us humans. Science is just wild, aye
So, who won this battle? Would it surprise you if it was the puppas?
“The current literature indicates that frontal brain activation patterns in humans correlate with the level of interaction with animals,” asserted the study.
“Our results show that this is also the case with a live dog compared to a plush animal and that the intensity of interaction is relevant.”
“Looking at a dog correlates with the lowest frontal activity, while passive contact with more and active stroking correlates with the highest frontal activity.”
It’s worth noting that the researchers don’t know why this is the case and want more studies to be conducted. However, in the meantime, we should all agree that dogs are the bestest of boys.
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